Apple has begun the construction of a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, the company said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as President Trump is planning to visit the tech giant's facility in the same city, where it will assemble the new Mac Pro computer it's launching next month.
The new 3-million-square-foot campus will initially house 5,000 employees, but it will be built to eventually accommodate 15,000 workers. It's expected to open in 2022, and Apple says it already employs 7,000 people in the city.
Trump's visit to Apple's Texas factory also comes after the president made a big push to keep American manufacturing jobs in the United States. Before Apple confirmed in September that it would continue producing the Mac Pro in Texas, Trump said on Twitter that the company would not be granted a waiver on Chinese import tariffs for its new computer. Instead, he urged the tech giant to produce the Mac Pro in the United States.
Now, Trump is visiting the facility in Austin, Texas where the computer will be assembled, which the firm says is a short distance away from the location of its upcoming office. The company said its new campus will also be designed to maximize green space and will include a 50-acre nature and wildlife preserve that will be open to the public.
In its announcement, Apple also reiterated that it's on pace to contribute $350 billion to the US economy by 2023, a commitment the iPhone maker made in 2018. Apple, meanwhile, is seeking exemptions on tariffs imposed on Chinese imports that would impact products like the Apple Watch, iPhone, and iMac among other products, as Bloomberg reported earlier this month.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has met with Trump several times over the past year. That includes one conversation from August in which Cook described his concerns regarding tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, and how they could make it more difficult for Apple to compete with the South Korea-based Samsung, its biggest rival in the smartphone industry.
Trump also said in August that he answers calls from Cook because the Apple CEO contacts the president personally, rather than hiring a consultant or lobbyist to do it.
"I got to help him out short term with that problem," Trump told reporters in August referencing Cook's concerns that the tariffs could benefit Samsung, according to Fox Business. "Because it's a great American company."
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